The Samum missile hovercraft (archive)

MOSCOW, May 21. /TASS/. The Russian-Chinese joint task force, currently in the Mediterranean for the Joint Sea-2015 naval exercise, is conducting artillery firing, depth charge dropping and radio electronic warfare practice in the eastern part of the sea, the Russian Defense Ministry’s naval spokesman, Captain 1st class Igor Dygalo, has told TASS.

The joint task force consists of the Moskva guided missile cruiser, the Ladny escort ship ,the Samum hovercraft, two amphibious assault ships - the Alexander Shabalin and the Alexander Otrakovsky, a salvage tug, two Chinese frigates - the Linyi and the Weifang - and a Chinese logistics ship, Dygalo said.

"The exercise will end with debriefing and analysis. The closing ceremony will take place at the headquarters of the joint command at Divnomorskoye (the Novorossiysk naval base) Thursday evening," Dygalo said.

The chiefs of the exercise for Russia and China, Russian Navy’s deputy commander, Vice-Admiral Alexander Fedotenkov and Chinese Navy’s deputy commander Vice-Admiral Du Czhinchen will summarize the results of the exercise at the ceremony.